Ernesto Cerna, 53, in a booking photo from a 2004 arrest in Bexar County. Cerna, arrested on a contempt of court charge from not paying child support, was ticketed for illegally possessing a wild animal after he reportedly grabbed a wild turkey in New Braunfels' Landa Park and shook it, then tossed it into a wading pool. Courtesy photo.

Ernesto Cerna, 53, in a booking photo from a 2004 arrest in Bexar County. Cerna, arrested on a contempt of court charge from not paying child support, was ticketed for illegally possessing a wild animal after

A wild turkey takes ups residence in Landa Park with the ducks on October 4, 2011.

A wild turkey takes ups residence in Landa Park with the ducks on October 4, 2011.

Photo: TOM REEL, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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A wild turkey takes ups residence in Landa Park with the ducks on October 4, 2011.

A wild turkey takes ups residence in Landa Park with the ducks on October 4, 2011.

Photo: TOM REEL, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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A wild turkey takes ups residence in Landa Park with the ducks on October 4, 2011.

A wild turkey takes ups residence in Landa Park with the ducks on October 4, 2011.

Photo: TOM REEL, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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A requiem for a park turkey

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NEW BRAUNFELS — The geese wept.

A pall, similar to that sleepy feeling you get after eating a huge Thanksgiving meal, fell over town Thursday as people learned the Landa Park turkey had been killed. It died, ironically, two days before Thanksgiving, a national holiday built around turkey.

The iconoclastic fowl, first noticed in July, died as it lived — in a park, surrounded by tourists, ducks and geese.

News of the death spread across the state via social networks. I posted a link to the mySA.com story on Facebook in the morning. Within minutes, my son-in-law responded: “Has the family been notified?”

Turkeys, wildlife experts told me in October, tend to stay with their own kind. This turkey, they said, must have gone rogue in search of food and safety from predators.

The turkey found plenty of food in the handfuls of bread crumbs and cereal thrown to the birds every day by visitors to the peaceful, 51-acre park.

“Our turkey was definitely a highlight,” said Robin Kunkel, city recreation manager. “We're disappointed that it's gone. The folks on the golf course had really gotten used to him. While he was here, he made himself at home. He walked all over the place with the ducks. I don't know if he even knew he was a turkey.”

That sense of safety disappeared as quickly as a duck closes in on a June bug. Witnesses told police they saw two men flinging the bird around by its neck on Nov. 21.

Game warden Brent Satsky told San Antonio Express-News Staff Writer Eva Ruth Moravec he cited Ernesto Zavala Cerna, 53, of San Antonio, on a charge of possessing a live game bird. It's only a Class C misdemeanor, but Cerna ended up going to jail on an unrelated warrant and now is free on bond.

“Someone's mom didn't raise him right,” said Travis Ireland, who with daughter Bella, 2, was feeding Dora the Explorer cereal to the ducks Thursday afternoon. “We used to see the turkey following the geese around. My son, who's 8, loved it.”

He had no plans to tell the boy about the death.

“Uh ... no need to go there,” he said. “I think we'll just let that one slide by.”

Parks department officials declined comment, but around town, people were stunned.

“We were just talking about this in the office,” former Mayor Stoney Williams said. “What kind of idiot just kills an animal for no reason? That's just plain ol' mean.”

During its short stay near Comal Springs, resident Kris Bolstad said, the turkey had become as well known in town as Rockin' Ronnie, a guy who gained a legion of local Facebook followers because of his skill playing a cardboard guitar outside Little Caesar's pizza.

“I feel it's a tragedy,” Bolstad said. “It was more than a cult thing. It was a mainstream thing. If you had four people, two of them knew about it and loved it.

The death, however shocking, shouldn't have been a surprise. I mean, it was a turkey. Last week was Thanksgiving. Someone had to see this coming.

It had a Facebook account, now called “Ghost of the Landa Park Turkey, which was created in October. And it had a Twitter account, LandaParkTurkey, created Oct. 25. I'm pretty sure it's a fake account, created by a fan, because it still was sending out messages Thursday.

“The rumors of my death,” the unknown author wrote, “have not been exaggerated.”